According to the departing Minister of Human Capacities, it is important from the viewpoint of Europe’s future that European people’s parties return to traditional, conservative, Christian democratic values.
At a stage discussion of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the German Business Club (Deutsche Wirtschaftsclub) held on Wednesday in Budapest which focused on the formation of governments in Hungary and Germany, Zoltán Balog highlighted that conventional Christian democratic parties must not set out on a liberal path.
Volkmar Klein, a Christian Democratic Union (CDU) Member of the German Federal Parliament, too, believes it is necessary to make it clear that they have credible Christian and conservative people in their parties. At the same time, it is a common task of people’s parties to distinguish themselves from extreme right-wing and left-wing parties.
Mr Balog said in response that human kindness and charity must in turn be distinguished from migration as a global process.
The Hungarian government takes the view that it is the duty of the State to protect the country, and Hungary therefore says no to migration, and does not allow anyone in who seeks to enter in an illegal manner, he stated.
He observed at the same time that solidarity should not only be measured in whether we let illegal immigrants in as Hungary supports the construction of schools and entire villages in Northern Iraq.
The Minister also said that Hungary was “compelled” to adopt an anti-migration stance as no one else was willing to represent this view in the European Union.
This, however, does not mean that the Hungarians would be happy to leave the European Union or are anti-European as the EU enjoys the highest popularity rate in Hungary, Mr Balog said.
In the context of migration Volkmar Klein stressed we must not extend the same treatment to those who only pretend to be in need as to those who are genuinely in need of help.
We must fight and eliminate the causes of fleeing, and people should be offered a better chance of advancement in their own countries, the politician of the larger governing party leading Germany said.
Regarding the Hungarian border fence, he took the view that if the Balkans route were not sealed, there would be far more refugees in Europe, but this measure was not the most important element of the bigger picture.
The agreement concluded with Turkey or the funds channelled to the World Food Programme were equally important, he added.
The German politician also highlighted that German-Hungarian relations should be made even more intensive because – among other reasons – this could bring Germany closer to the other Visegrád countries.